Oscar-nominated Julian Brave NoiseCat, past winner Dan Werb vie for Writers’ Trust

By Kaitlyn McGrath An Oscar-nominated filmmaker and a past winner are among the finalists for Canada’s largest literary non-fiction prize. Contenders for the Writers’ Trust award include Toronto’s Dan Werb, who won in 2022 for his look at the rise of coronaviruses and this time makes the cut with, “Our Wild Familiars: How Animals Are Adapting to Cities and Reshaping the Natural World.” Meanwhile, Vancouver writer-filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat, who co-directed the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Sugarcane,” is up for his account of a quest to uncover his father’s story in “We Survived the Night: An Indigenous Reckoning.